Omnivore, animal with wide food preferences, which can eat both plant and animal matter. Many small birds and mammals are omnivorous; deer mice and mockingbirds have diets that at different times may include a preponderance of insects or berries. Many animals generally considered carnivores are actually omnivorous, among them the red fox, which enjoys fruits and berries, and the snapping turtle, one-third of whose diet is provided by plants.

Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are omnivores; they readily prey upon birds, mice, and rabbits but …

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Omnivores are miscellaneous species whose teeth and digestive systems seem designed to eat a relatively concentrated diet, since they have no large sac or chamber for the fermentation of fibrous material. They are able to chew and digest meat, though they do not have an absolute requirement for it unless there is no other practical source of vitamin B12 (cobalamin). Humans are in...

...been important in the diet of H. erectus. Accumulations of hackberry seeds, for example, were found in the Zhoukoudian cave deposits. There seems to be little doubt that H. erectus was omnivorous, for such a diet is the most opportunistic of all, and modern humans are the most opportunistic of all living primates. H. erectus was probably one of the earliest of the great...

...primary carnivores. These categories are not strictly defined, as many organisms feed on several trophic levels; for example, some carnivores also consume plant materials or carrion and are called omnivores, and some herbivores occasionally consume animal matter. A separate trophic level, the decomposers or transformers, consists of organisms such as bacteria and fungi that break down dead...